A total of 18,601 confirmed cases are reported for COVID-19 in the country. As many as 3252 persons i.e. 17.48% of total cases have been cured/discharged after recovery. A total of 590 deaths have been reported so far due to COVID-19. There are now 61 additional districts from 23 States/UT that have not reported any fresh cases during the last 14 Days. CSIR is launching a randomized, blinded, two arms, active comparator-controlled clinical trial to evaluate drug efficacy to reduce mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare has written to the Health Departments of all States/UTs to ensure adequate availability of blood in blood banks.
The Union Government has directed Government of West Bengal not to obstruct working of Central Teams reg. review and on-spot assessment of implementation of Lockdown measures to fight COVID19 in the State. It had been brought to the notice of MHA that both the Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs), at Kolkata and Jalpaiguri respectively, have not been provided with the requisite co-operation by the State and local authorities. It was informed that they have been specifically restrained from making any visits, interacting with health professionals, and assessing the ground level situation.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme during the lockdown period from 24.3.2020 till date, about 8.89 crore farmer families have been benefitted and an amount of Rs. 17,793 crore has been released so far. In order to provide food security during the prevailing situation due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has decided to distribute pulses to the eligible households under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PM-GKY). About 107,077.85 MT pulses have so far been issued to the States/UTs.
Dr. Jitendra Singh commends the yeomen services rendered by Civil Servants in India’s fight against COVID-19 on Civil Services Day: Calling for greater inter-service camaraderie, citing the successful example of the CARUNA platform which brings together 29 service associations in an endeavour to support natural disasters, Dr. Singh in a video interaction complemented the civil servants for their support to Government’s COVID 19 relief operations by offering one day salary to the Prime Minister’s Cares Fund. He said that District Collectors have been leading the fight against the COVID 19 pandemic and India’s prospects to contain the pandemic rested on the broad shoulders of civil servants.
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today said India and Afghanistan will combat COVID-19 together, with solidarity and shared resolve. PM Modi was responding to a tweet from Afghanistan President Dr. Ashraf Ghani, who expressed his gratitude towards India for providing essential medicines hydroxychloroquine, paracetamol and other items to Afghanistan.
